Some time ago, I made a couple of illustrations for 'Deployment' by Muddied Waters Games, a ttRPG set during WW2. I usually do more fantasy stuff, so it was an excellent opportunity to paint something different. I was asked for something rough that looked like a real soldier's journal from the period.
April 9, 1914: On this date, Serbian-American George Musulin was born in New York City. He served in the Office of Strategic Services in WW2 & successfully led the evacuation of some 447 US airmen from Nazi-occupied Yugoslavia as part of Operation HALYARD.
...speaking of #ww2, remember these guys? #Navajo #code talkers
https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/american-indian-code-talkers
...crazy how who we are and what we know is only valued when it can be #exploited for their purposes... which is mostly #war mongering and tricking us into exploiting each other so they can forget us a11 when its done, and then wipe our names from the registry of existence they lie about and mislabel #history ...
@enkiusz @SpaceLifeForm @georgetakei
RE
putting people in prison camps and expecting them to become intelligence operatives seems like a bad plan for recruitment
Actually, forcing families to quickly relocate without many personal possessions IS a bad plan for any reason
But, have you heard of the 442 #goforbroke #WW2 infantry regiment?
The most decorated, composed almost entirely of second generation soldiers of Japanese ancestry (Nisei)
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/442nd_Infantry_Regiment_(United_States)
I wonder how many were #OSS
@SpaceLifeForm @georgetakei
RE
many people today will never connect the dots
RE #GeorgeTakei
"...send migrants to a prison camp without any due process, it can send U.S. citizens there, too. I know because this happened to me and my family in 1942."
Connect the dots, makes me think, what IF one reason to do this in 1942 was to get many balanced bilinguals to join the #OSS and be placed ALL OVER JAPAN #WW2
#officeofstrategicservices
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_of_Strategic_Services
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Takei
![Takei had several relatives living in Japan during World War II. Among them, he had an aunt and infant cousin who lived in Hiroshima and who were both killed during the atomic bombing that destroyed the city.
In Takei's own words, "My aunt and baby cousin [were] found burnt in a ditch in Hiroshima."
At the end of World War II, after leaving Tule internment camp, Takei's family was left without any bank accounts, home or family business; this left them unable to find any housing, so they lived on Skid Row, Los Angeles for five years.
He attended Mount Vernon Junior High School and served as Boys Senior Board President at Los Angeles High School. He was a member of Boy Scout Troop 379 of the Koyasan Buddhist Temple.
Upon graduation from high school, Takei enrolled in the University of California, Berkeley, where he studied architecture.
Later, he transferred to the University of California, Los Angeles, where he received a Bachelor of Arts in theater in 1960 and a Master of Arts in theater in 1964.
He also attended the Shakespeare Institute at Stratford-upon-Avon in England and Sophia University in Tokyo. In Hollywood, he studied acting at the Desilu Workshop.](https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/114/300/081/920/962/572/original/52e1969863fddd71.jpg "Takei had several relatives living in Japan during World War II. Among them, he had an aunt and infant cousin who lived in Hiroshima and who were both killed during the atomic bombing that destroyed the city.
In Takei's own words, \"My aunt and baby cousin [were] found burnt in a ditch in Hiroshima.\"
At the end of World War II, after leaving Tule internment camp, Takei's family was left without any bank accounts, home or family business; this left them unable to find any housing, so they lived on Skid Row, Los Angeles for five years.
He attended Mount Vernon Junior High School and served as Boys Senior Board President at Los Angeles High School. He was a member of Boy Scout Troop 379 of the Koyasan Buddhist Temple.
Upon graduation from high school, Takei enrolled in the University of California, Berkeley, where he studied architecture.
Later, he transferred to the University of California, Los Angeles, where he received a Bachelor of Arts in theater in 1960 and a Master of Arts in theater in 1964.
He also attended the Shakespeare Institute at Stratford-upon-Avon in England and Sophia University in Tokyo. In Hollywood, he studied acting at the Desilu Workshop.")
This is history that has not been told:
As a trained wildland firefighter who knew the history of smokejumpers, I have NEVER heard that the first American smokejumpers were the African American troops of the all-black 555th Parachute Infantry Battalion (the Triple Nickles) who, in Operation Firefly, fought the fires caused by Japanese balloon bombs.
#WW2 #WildlandFirefighting #BlackHistory #Smokejumpers
https://www.cnn.com/2025/04/05/us/joe-harris-triple-nickle-black-paratroopers/index.html
What's happening here? My city is getting ready to defuse four suspected 2nd world war bombs. 8000 people had to leave the area, currently officials are roaming the streets checking if everyone has left.
When they dig up a bomb, the have to defuse or - if that's not possible - detonate it right after because it could blow up by itself once moved. That's why all people have to leave a 500m radius before they start digging.
April 5, 1944: On this date, Special Operations Executive agent Lilian Rolfe dropped near the city of Orléans in occupied France, where she was deployed to work with the HISTORIAN circuit run by George Wilkinson.
“QUARTERED SAFE OUT HERE … provides insight into what it takes an individual to survive, both (with luck) physically and, more importantly, ethically”
– retired Australian Army officer Jason Thomas on George MacDonald Fraser’s memoir of the WW2 Burma campaign
https://warroom.armywarcollege.edu/special-series/dusty-shelves/quartered-safe/
#Scottish #literature #history #memoir #war #WW2 #Burma
2/5
#BletchleyPark code breaker Betty Webb dies aged 101
A decorated #WorldWarTwo code breaker who spent her youth deciphering enemy messages at Bletchley Park has died at the age of 101.
Mrs Webb, from Wythall in Worcestershire, joined operations at the Buckinghamshire base at the age of 18, later going on to help with Japanese codes at The Pentagon in the US. She was awarded France's highest honour - the Légion d'Honneur - in 2021.
#ww2 #codebreaker #obituaries
Paris, Paris, Paris - Josephine Baker, American-born French dancer, singer, actress, member of the French Resistance, & civil rights activist. She was awarded the Resistance Medal, the Croix de Guerre, & was named a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour.
#suisse #radio #renseignement #guerre #resistance #communisme #ww2
Rendez-vous avec X "Les "Trois Rouges" ou le mystère de l'Orchestre Rouge Suisse".
... où l'on apprend entre autre que des généraux suisses de l'armée étaient prêts à faire un putsch si la confédération avait choisi de s'allier à Hitler.
Mar 31, 1918: On this date, Pierrette Vincelot was born. She was a member of the French Resistance. Following the German occupation of France, the demarcation line was approximately 15 km from her home. Her involvement with the Resistance began initially as a messenger. She subsequently created counterfeit documents for the Resistance and helped children escape the Nazi occupied zone.
Mar 27, 1914: Budd Schulberg was born on this date. During WW2 Schulberg was assigned to the Office of Strategic Services working with John Ford’s documentary unit.
Schulberg was among the 1st Americans to witness the horrors of the Nazi concentration camps and he pursued evidence for the war crimes trials.
He was also on the team that arrested Nazi propagandist Leni Riefenstahl.
In the post-war period, Italian women participated in politics of their country in unprecedented number. 50% of the women elected to the postwar Parliament had a partisan background. The gains Italian women earned through their courageous work with the Resistance resulted in them acquiring a seat at the table of Italian politics. (2/2)
Over one quarter of the participants in the Italian Resistance during WW2 were women. After the war, 200,000 Italians were registered formally as active members of the Resistance; 55,000 were women. (1/2)
Mar 24, 1945:
“Beginning in 1943, the War Department published a series of pamphlets for US Army personnel in the European theater of WW2... On March 24, 1945, the topic for the week was ‘FASCISM!’” (1/2)
Mar 24, On this date in 1944, the real ‘Great Escape’ occurred when British Commonwealth POWs escaped from the German prisoner of war camp Stalag Luft III.
It was immortalized in the HIGHLY fictionalized 1963 film ‘The Great Escape’ (including among other inaccuracies, the role of Americans in the actual escape.) In the movie, Steve McQueen's character was based on Jerry Sage of the Office of Strategic Services.
This documentary (in Norwegian with English subtitles) tells the story of Operation Martin and Jan Baalsrud’s escape. It includes interviews with Baalsrud and others. (5/5)
He had a harrowing 2 month journey fleeing to neutral Sweden. Along the way, he was buried in an avalanche, amputated his own frostbitten toes, battled starvation, & went snowblind. He eventually made it to safety. (4/5)
https://explorersweb.com/2021/03/20/great-survival-stories-jan-baalsrud-evades-nazi-dragnet/
